"1+1"

Sony

Artists:

Among other things, Beyoncé's "1+1" is a clever, of-the-moment update on Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World". Writer/producers Tricky Stewart and The-Dream retain the 1960 hit's "don't know much about algebra" line, but they scoop up that love song sentiment and plop it down into the perilous world of 2011. Cooke told his girl, "I know that if you love me too/ What a wonderful world this could be," while Beyoncé, referencing death, war, and maybe even a pending apocalypse, knows that the world is chaos, and just hopes that love can still do what Sam Cooke promised. "Make love to me," she implores, mixing vulnerability and confidence, and then she even explains why you should: "When the world's at war/ That our love will heal us all."

But this Sam Cooke update is also a Prince homage. Specifically "Purple Rain" thanks to those delicate guitars, melodramatic piano, and Beyoncé affecting the Purple One's high-register whimper a few times. But what could have been just a musical exercise for Stewart and The-Dream ("I don't know about guns/ But I've been shot by you" is a Prince-like head scratcher for sure) becomes something so much more for Beyoncé. So she really digs in and sells the song's knotty qualities, and when that over-the-top guitar break appears exactly when it should, it's cathartic. At that precise moment, this passionate pastiche of timeless pop becomes a classic all its own.